Broken
by nezumihaijin
Summary: I'm back! Yay! Whether that is a good or a bad thing... oh well. Chapter six! Hooray! R and R... because if I summarize it, it will just sound corny.
1. It's Kouichi's Birthday!

I'm definitely going to raise the rating of this later, PG-13 or R depending on how much lemon and/or violence I decide to put in. It's AU.  
  
Basically, Kouji has a crush on Takuya (duh, why would it be in the Takouji section if he didn't), but he also has some friends who make an event of beating up one gay guy every week. (Those of you who think that's unlikely, don't you dare flame me, I know some jackasses who do that.) In order for Kouji to prove himself, they want him to beat up... well, you can guess.  
  
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"Hey Kouji! Where are you going in such a hurry?"  
The tall, bandana wearing teenager nearly skidded to a halt upon hearing his name called. He turned around as two other boys ran up to him. Akero, the one who had shouted, was a head shorter than Kouji and had a blond crew cut. The other boy, Meru, was about Kouji's height and had wild pitch black hair and glasses.  
"Today," Kouji said, "Is Kouichi's surprise party. I have to get to his house before he does so I can be there to surprise him."  
"Oh yeah," said Akero, "But don't you think it's a little unfair?"  
Kouji was confused, "What? How so?"  
"It's your birthday too. How come you're not having a party?"  
"Oh, I already had my party a couple days ago. In fact, I..." he paused and looked down at his watch, "Crap! I'm late! See you guys later!"  
Meru shook his head as he watched his friend's retreating back.  
"It's a shame we have to do this. He was really looking forward to surprising his brother."  
  
Kouji burst in the door of Kouichi's apartment, startling everybody.  
"Is he here yet? Did I miss him?"  
"No, Kouji, Kouichi isn't back yet," said his mother, "But you can help decorate." She darted into the kitchen as the oven timer dinged, signaling the completion of the cake.  
Suddenly, Kouji felt something heavy land on his back.  
"Hey, Kouji! What on earth took you so long?"  
The dark haired boy pried a pair of tan arms from around his shoulders, making the short brunette who was hanging on him fall to the floor. It was Kanbara Takuya, his best friend and complete opposite. He was wearing a ribbon around his neck and several multicolored gift wrap bows in his hair.  
"Hey guess what I got for Kouichi?" Takuya asked.  
"What?"  
"POCKY!!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and throwing his hands in the air.  
"..."  
"What, Kouji?"  
"That's what I got him!" the dark haired boy said.  
"Well, I hope Kouichi likes pocky." said Takuya, shrugging, "Wait, of course he does. Everyone likes pocky. Anywho, what took you so long?"  
"I was talking to some of my friends and--"  
"Neato! Have a bow!" Takuya exclaimed, pulling one of the gift wrap bows out of his hair and sticking it square in the middle of Kouji's forehead, "Now you're cool like me! Help me with this stupid creep paper. I can't get any of it to stay up." He pointed to a large pile of purple streamers in a corner of the room. Kouji rolled his eyes and peeled the bow off of his head.  
"It's crepe paper," he said, "Not creep paper."  
"Whatever," replied the brunette, blowing his bangs out of his eyes, "Just help me put it up. We have to be done by the time your brother gets back and I haven't done anything yet."  
Kouji walked over to the other side of the room and picked up a foot ladder, "We've got a lot of work to do then."  
"You're telling me," Takuya replied, handing Kouji tape and streamers as the dark haired boy climbed the ladder. Kouji began tacking the crepe paper to the wall in double waves. Soon the two boys had worked their way around the whole room and were beginning to start on blowing up balloons. Takuya cast a glare over in Kouji's direction.  
"How do you do everything perfectly all the time?"  
The other boy smiled, "Skills."  
"No, seriously!"  
"It must run in my family."  
"That's no excuse!" the brunette protested, "Kouichi is a total klutz!"  
Kouji was just about to reply when a small alarm clock on the coffee table went off, alerting everyone that it was almost time for his brother to come home.  
"Alright everyone!" Ms. Kimura shouted, putting the finishing touches on the cake, "Find a good hiding place! Kouichi should be here any minute now!"  
Kouji and Takuya abandoned the balloons and started to search frantically for a place to hide. The first empty spot they found was the coat closet. Kouji shoved his way between the coats and hunkered down on the floor next to some boots.  
"Is there room for me?" asked Takuya. The other boy nodded.  
"Yeah, just barely though," he said, "Hopefully you don't feel too uncomfortable with the idea of being stuck in a closet with--"  
"Just shut up and let me in," Takuya said, throwing himself into the closet and landing on top of Kouji, "I think I'll be very comfortable." The dark haired boy closed the door.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.  
"It means you make a good mattress."  
Kouji blushed as the other boy rearranged himself on his lap, trying to resist a growing urge to put his arms around Takuya. Several minutes passed in silence until either boy spoke again.  
"I'm bored!" whined Takuya, repositioning himself yet again and checking his Indiglo watch, "It's been a whole seven and a half minutes!"  
"Maybe Kouichi stopped at the store after school or something," said Kouji.  
"Yeah. He'll be here any minute now."  
Another ten minutes passed, and the two boys in the closet could hear murmurs of worry from the living room.  
"Are you sure he's not staying after school or something?" Takuya asked Kouji, who now had sweat pouring off of his forehead from the combination of the fact that the brunette was on his lap, he was worried about his brother, and the closet was starting to get a little too hot for his liking.  
"No, he's not. I asked him at lunch."  
"Maybe he got detention or something," Takuya suggested. Kouji gave a little half shrug.  
"Yeah, maybe."  
At that time, the sound of a key turning in a lock was heard, and both boys sat up, ready to jump out and surprise Kouichi as soon as he opened the closet door to hang up his coat. Everyone in the living room was holding their breath as the older of the twins shoved open his front door.  
"SURPRI--"  
Everyone suddenly fell silent.  
"What the fuck..." whispered Kouji  
"Oh my God! What on earth happened to you?!" Ms. Kimura shouted as she saw her son.  
  
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Muaha! This is possibly my worst cliffhanger ever! But I'll bet you can guess what happened. Meh. *shrugs* 


	2. A Sort of Explanation

Heeheehee, chapter 2! Wow, It took me longer than I thought it would to update...this was kind of a spur-of-the-moment story and I had trouble filling in the holes in the plot. But meh...  
It will be Junichi!! And Takouji, but you know that already.  
And so...ONWARDS!!  
  
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"What's going on?" whispered Takuya.  
"I don't know," Kouji replied, "Only one way to find out."  
Placing a hand on Takuya's waist, Kouji turned him gently onto his side and got up. He turned the doorknob of the closet door and peeked out at the scene in the living room. The only thing he could really see was his mother kneeling on the floor and the other guests standing in a tight semicircle, talking in hushed, worried voices.  
"Kouji..."  
Takuya leaned against the dark haired boy, who lost his balance, toppling out of the closet. He landed on his stomach on the floor with Takuya face down on top of him. The two boys blushed furiously as everyone briefly turned their attention to them, realizing that they were in an extremely odd position. Kouji pushed himself up and Takuya fell off him with an 'oof'. He ran over to the other side of the room and put a hand on his mother's shoulder.  
"What happened, mom? Is Kouichi here yet?"  
His mother looked up at him, "Yes, Kouji. He's here."  
The dark haired boy suddenly saw his brother sitting cross-legged on the sofa, his face in his hands and his hair disheveled. His back was shaking; he was crying. Kouji walked over to him, followed closely by Takuya.  
"Kouichi?" he said quietly. The older twin opened his fingers slightly to look at his brother.  
"Hello Kouji."  
"What happened?" the younger twin questioned. Kouichi closed the spaces between his fingers.  
"I...people hurt me..."  
Kouji heard the pain in his twin's voice and embraced him, gently combing the tangles out of his soft hair.  
"It's okay, Kouichi..."  
"No it's not!" the older boy whispered, "I know why they did it." He sat up a bit straighter and uncovered half his face to whisper in Kouji's ear, "They hate me because I'm gay." The younger twin nodded. He had known this from several years ago. His brother had confided in him when he couldn't turn to anyone else. He had told him all of his feelings and his dreams and everything else, and even when he hadn't really wanted to listen, he did. Eventually, when Kouji figured out that he himself was gay, the first person he told was Kouichi.  
"Let me see your face," Kouji said, holding the other boy at arm's length to get a better look at him. Kouichi nodded and slowly lowered his hands from his face. Kouji nearly gasped at the sight. His brother's left eye was blackened and had a nasty looking cut under it, his upper lip and nose were bloodied, and there were several other purplish-black bruises in various other places on his face.  
"Who the fuck did this to you?" Kouji swore.  
"I dunno...they were weird looking though..."  
"What did they look like?"  
"I think...one of them had black hair and the other one had blond hair...and there was another guy but I couldn't see him...real well."  
"That's good enough. I'll get those guys the next time I see them Kouichi, I promise."  
The older twin made a small noise in approval and curled up in a ball in a corner of the sofa. Kouji looked at him sadly for a while before getting up and heading for the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and took out a bottle of soda, ignoring the fact that there was already an open one on the counter. Turning around, he almost ran into Takuya, who was standing right behind him.  
"Move," he said. The brunette did, not wanting to piss Kouji off any further. Kouji put the soda down on the counter and got out a glass from the cupboard. He poured his soda and sipped it slowly, making silent revenge plans for the guys who had beat up his brother. They might have gotten Kouichi, but he would beat the living daylights out of them before they could get anyone else. Those guys were going to pay...  
"Kouji?"  
Takuya's voice broke into his thoughts.  
"What?" he snapped, turning around to glare at the brunette. Any normal person would have muttered a brief 'Never mind' and hurried off to another part of the room, but Takuya didn't. He was used to Kouji's abrupt mood changes.  
"Those guys who beat up your brother..."  
"Yeah? What about 'em?"  
"You don't think it could have been those two guys you hang out with, do you?"  
Kouji looked thoughtful for a minute before shaking his head, "Who, Akero and Meru? Nah. Me and Kouichi hang out with them all the time. They really like him. And besides, he said there were three guys..."  
"They could have some other friend who they hang out with, Kouji. You and Kouichi aren't their only friends, you know," Takuya said.  
"Yeah, I know," said Kouji, "But I still don't think it was them. I just can't picture Akero and Meru doing something like that."  
Takuya shrugged, "I dunno, Kouji. I sure don't trust them, though."  
"Meh. Your loss. They're really cool guys once you get to know them."  
"I'm sure they are," Takuya said, "That's just totally awesome how they beat up Kouichi."  
Kouji ignored his friend's comment. It couldn't be true, he thought, Takuya was probably just jealous that he was making friends and didn't have to hang out with him all the time. 


	3. Pocky!

Yay! An update! Yay! This chapter was created when I was eating pocky...so it's mainly about Kouichi getting pocky for his birthday. American pocky is damn nasty though...  
  
;_; no pocky for me...*chews on Kouichi plushy's head instead, which actually tastes better than American pocky*  
  
Kouichi: . oww...  
  
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Kouji put his soda glass down,"You know what would make Kouichi happy?" he asked, completely changing the subject, "Giving him his presents."  
"Yeah yeah yeah!" Takuya exclaimed, his suspicions about Akero and Meru temporarily forgotten, "He can open mine first, and then yours, cause you know pocky makes you happy, and extra pocky makes you extra happy!!"  
"Whatever you say Takuya."  
The brunette grabbed several presents from the kitchen counter and carried them into the living room, followed by Kouji. He poked the now sleeping Kouichi in the shoulder.  
"Hey, dopey! Wake up! We got your presents!"  
The dark haired boy opened his un-blackened eye. "Wud?"  
"We got your presents!"  
"Oh. What are they?" Kouichi asked, sitting up a little.  
"You'll just have to open them and see," said Takuya, handing him the first present, "This one's from me!"  
Kouichi took the package and, very carefully, slid his fingers under the wrapping paper and peeled each piece of tape off individually. Takuya sighed in annoyance.  
"You open presents like a girl!"  
Kouichi stuck his tongue out at the brunette, wincing a little because of his cut, "I like saving the wrapping paper."  
"You pansy," Takuya muttered. Kouji glared at him.  
"It wouldn't hurt you to shut up once in a while, you know."  
"Ah, whatta you know?" Takuya said.  
"Kouji, can I have an ice pack?" Kouichi asked, touching the black marks around his eye tenderly.  
"Sure," his younger twin responded. He got up and walked back to the kitchen, busying himself in the freezer. Kouichi finally got the wrapping paper off of Takuya's present. His eyes lit up as he slid the box out and saw what his present was.  
"You got me...ow! Pocky!!" He exclaimed. Apparently smiling and laughing hurt his face, because he kept his expression sober as he gave Takuya a huge hug, "Thank you so much!"  
"Just wait till you open Kouji's!!" the brunette said, throwing another package onto Kouichi's lap as the long haired boy returned from the kitchen with an ice pack.  
"Thank you, Kouji," Kouichi said. He put the ice on his eye and began to unwrap this present in the same fashion as the last one. Kouji sat down next to Takuya and preceded to punch the brunette in the arm every time he sighed about how meticulous Kouichi was about unwrapping gifts.  
"More pocky!" exclaimed Kouichi. His brother smiled.  
"You aren't dissappointed, are you?"  
"Not at all!!" said Kouichi, reaching over Takuya to give his younger twin a hug, "The more pocky, the better!" (A/N: That's pretty much my philosophy for life XD)  
"Time for your other presents!!" said Takuya. He tossed more packages onto Kouichi's lap and the dark haired boy opened them all in the same style as the first two. Eventually, it became clear that Kouichi had not gotten anything that could top the pocky. He had recieved mostly books and outfits. Kouji stifled a laugh; he suspected that the outfits were from their mother, who was always saying Kouichi must have been colorblind to wear what he did.  
At last, there was only one present left. Kouichi glanced at a small tag on the side of it and blushed. Takuya, who had been dozing off on Kouji's shoulder, suddenly became interested in what the older twin was doing.  
"Something cool?"  
Kouichi blushed even more as he began opening the package, this time even more carefully than the other ones.  
"Who's it from?" Kouji asked.  
"N-no one."  
"Aww, c'mon, Kouichi! Tell us!" Takuya whined. Kouichi shook his head.  
"Please?" Kouji asked.  
"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?" Takuya seconded.  
"No, I'm not going to tell you!"  
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?" Takuya continued, even louder this time. Kouichi clamped a hand and his ice pack over his ears.  
"Fine! I'll tell you if you shut up!"  
"Ok! Tell us!"  
The older twin took a deep breath, "It's from my...my boyfriend."  
Takuya squeaked and fell off the couch.  
"Honestly, Takuya, for all the times you've talked about Kouichi acting like a girl..." Kouji said. Giving the brunette a look, he turned back to his brother, "Who's your boyfriend?"  
"...You know that kid in your class..."  
"Which one, Kouichi?"  
"....Shibayama..."  
"Junpei?"  
"Yes..."  
"Aww! You two are great together!" said Takuya, clambering back onto the sofa, "Hey wait...how come he didn't come to your party? If you two are going out, he should be here, shouldn't he?"  
"He would have come, but he and his family are on vacation in Germany until Sunday," Kouichi said with a sigh, "I miss him though, I wish he'd come back. I don't think those guys would've messed with me if Junpei was here."  
"Probably not," Kouji said.  
"Can we change the subject?" Takuya asked, looking clearly bored.  
"What's wrong Taku-chan?" Kouji said, "Feeling left out that you're the only guy in the room who prefers girls?" Takuya had gone out with a girl named Taya for several months before he dumped her, insisting that she was not his type.  
Takuya blushed, "I do not prefer girls!" he protested.  
"Yes you do," said Kouji.  
"I do not!"  
"Do too!"  
"I agree with you, Takuya," interrupted Kouichi, "After all, since when is Kouji a girl?"  
"Huh?" said Kouji. Kouichi just snickered and walked off towards his bedroom to finish opening his present from Junpei, not even bothering to clarify what he meant. It had been obvious for some time that his brother liked Takuya and that Takuya liked him too, and he was sick of seeing them flirt and argue about liking girls. He snickered again and entered his room, flopping down on his bed and slowly peeling the wrapping paper off of his last present.  
  
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MUAHAHA!! You'll have to wait until the NEXT chapter to find out how Takuya and Kouji will get together...and what Junpei got Kouichi for his birthday. I was thinking chocolate but everyone else already got him pocky...ideas appreciated!  
  
And don't ask me why Junpei is in Germany. It just popped into my head, and I was sick of stories where everyone always goes to the United States. Besides, Germany's cool. It's where hamburgers come from!! And sauerkraut, and veinerschnitsel (Spelling?), and hot dogs, and...lots of other good foods!  
  
Next chapter will be better, I promise. ^_^ 


	4. Photographs and Kissing

Oh sweet Jesus, that took such a long time. Sorry x a billion --.--;; I didn't mean to but.I was trying to open up TWD to work on it and it won't let me!! *cries* All my beautiful work. gone.like that! *snaps*. I hate Windows. Hate it hate it hate it. I'm also trying to work on a Koukou story (note that I said 'trying') and since I've never worked on a Koukou story it's kind of hard. But nonetheless, I will try VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY hard to update TWD as soon as possible. Bear with me, peoples!  
  
If I had enough money to buy Digimon, I would also buy a house, a car, and a new computer.  
  
Oh yeah, "this is talking" 'this is thinking'  
  
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For the first time since Kouichi had walked in the door, Kouji noticed that all of the adults who had been in the living room were now in the dining room, talking in hushed voices. The silence surrounding the sofa was almost unbearable.  
"So, Taku-chan, is it true?" the dark haired boy asked, looking his brunette companion in the eyes. The other boy looked at the carpet. He began to speak but decided against it at the last minute, uttering a soft squeak and turning bright red.  
"C'mon Takuya, tell me!" Kouji said. Takuya shook his head, "I don't wanna."  
Kouji looked at the other boy for a minute. The brunette looked as though he was going to burst into tears at any second. Kouji, feeling sorry for his friend, reached out and began to rub the other boy's back.  
"Taku-chan."  
"."  
"I wouldn't have a problem with you if you did."  
"Why not? It's wrong," said Takuya, "You're my best friend.I don't want to-"  
"Lose me?" Kouji finished. 'I understand, Takuya.that's why I didn't want to tell you how I felt.'  
"Yeah," said Takuya.  
Kouji stopped rubbing Takuya's back, "You don't have to worry about that, Takuya." The brunette finally looked up and into his friend's eyes.  
"What do you mean?" he asked. Kouji let his hand fall from Takuya's back onto the other boy's hand. He savored the look of surprise on the brunette's face before he responded.  
"Did you really think that I wouldn't feel the way you did?"  
"Well, you are always hanging out with Akero and Meru." Takuya said. It was Kouji's turn to look surprised.  
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?"  
"Akero and Meru are the worst homophobes I've ever met," the brunette said, "I thought that you only joked around with Kouichi about being gay."  
"Why on earth would I joke around about that?" Kouji asked, "I'm completely serious!"  
"Because.Akero and Meru would beat you into the ground if they knew you were gay," Takuya said, "I can't believe you've been hanging out with those guys for this long and you don't know that!"  
Kouji couldn't bring himself to believe what Takuya was saying. It just wasn't possible for two of his best friends to hate gays. Even though all of the day's events were starting to form ideas in his head-Kouichi saying the guys who beat him up did it because he was gay, for instance- Kouji still wasn't willing to believe that his friends could be like that. (A/N: *beats head against wall* .)  
"They don't have to know," the dark haired boy said, taking Takuya's hand in his own, "No one has to know if you don't want them to."  
"You're serious?" asked Takuya.  
Kouji nodded, "I'm always serious, Taku-chan."  
Takuya looked at the other boy for a minute before throwing himself into his new boyfriend's arms. Kouji smiled as he felt the weight of Takuya's head on his chest and pulled a gift-wrap bow out of the other boy's hair. The brunette immediately sat up and glared at Kouji.  
"I don't care how hot you are, you touch the bows, you die."  
Kouji made a face as he stuck the bow back in Takuya's hair, "Fine, keep your bow."  
"I will," said Takuya, putting his head back down on the other boy's chest. After awhile, both boys' breathing grew deeper, and they dropped off to sleep in each other's arms.  
  
"Aww, how sweet! Come look at this, everyone!" Kouji heard his mother say. He resisted the urge to open his eyes and see what was so cute. His mother tended to make a big deal out of stuff, especially when something was 'adorable' or 'just plain cute'.  
"Take a picture, mom!" Kouichi said, "Here's the camera!" Kouji heard the sound of something being handed to someone. Soon after that, the click of the shutter was heard, and the dark haired boy decided it was time to wake up. He opened his eyes, seeing only blurry figures and a smudge of brown at first. It was then that he realized what must have been so adorable.  
"Gah!" he exclaimed, his eyes popping open, "That wasn't fair!!"  
"What wasn't fair, little brother?" Kouichi asked, his face-despite the bruises-the picture of innocence, "You guys fell asleep on the couch. If you didn't want to be photographed you should have picked another spot."  
"You didn't have to hand mom the camera!"  
"You didn't have to fall asleep in the first place!"  
"You didn't have to be so dumb!"  
"You didn't have to be so angry!"  
"Shut up." said Takuya, pulling a pillow from the couch to cover his ears, "People fighting in the morning isn't fun."  
"It isn't morning, Taku-chan, it's afternoon," said Kouji.  
"Same thing," said Takuya, "I'm still tired. How long were we asleep?"  
"Fifteen minutes," said Kouichi.  
"I'll bet that was enough time to open your present from Junpei about halfway, huh Kouichi?" asked Takuya. Kouichi looked smug.  
"Actually, I got the whole thing open. Guess what Junpei got me!"  
"Pocky?" asked Kouji. Kouichi shook his head.  
"Goggles?" asked Takuya. The twins gave him a look.  
"What the heck made you say that?" Kouji asked. Takuya shrugged.  
"Goggles are cool. I figured that Junpei would get Kouichi something cool."  
Kouji prayed mentally that Takuya never got him goggles for his birthday.  
"Are you guys gonna guess or am I gonna have to tell you?" Kouichi asked, looking at the other two boys.  
"Just tell us," said Takuya, "I'm getting bored." He poked Kouji in the stomach to illustrate his point.  
"Okay.Junpei got me.art supplies!"  
Takuya looked disappointed, "That's it? I was expecting something exciting!"  
"It is exciting! Now I can use colored pencils and paint and stuff  
instead of just normal pencils! Besides, it's better than goggles,"  
Kouichi said. Kouji looked up at his brother and then down at Takuya.  
"Kouichi likes to draw," he explained.  
Takuya rolled his eyes, "I could've guessed that."  
"Well now you didn't have to guess," said Kouji, "Aren't you glad we  
saved you the trouble?"  
"Meh," Takuya said, rolling off of Kouji and onto the floor, "I still  
think Junpei should have gotten Kouichi goggles."  
"I'm fine." said Kouichi, slipping quietly off to his room once more.  
Kouji got up and walked into the kitchen, where he began finding  
ingredients for an ice cream sundae. Once again, he noticed that the  
adults had all congregated in the dining room and were most likely  
discussing the photograph that had been taken. He turned around to put  
his supplies on the counter top and saw Takuya standing in the doorway.  
"Can I have one too?" the brunette asked, pointing to the carton of ice cream. Kouji nodded.  
"Sure."  
Takuya walked over to Kouji's side and watched him prepare the ice cream. Both of them were silent as Kouji finished making the sundaes and handed Takuya his bowl. They re-entered the living room and sat back down on the couch. Two minutes later, the ice cream was gone and they were once again faced with the lack of conversation. Takuya, lost in thought, resorted to staring at Kouji with his mouth hanging open.  
"You want something, Taku-chan?" Kouji asked. Takuya looked up at the other boy, noticing that his eyes were filled with an unusual amount of kindness.  
"No, I'm okay," he said, continuing to stare into Kouji's eyes nonetheless. Kouji leaned closer to Takuya and lifted a hand to run his fingers through his soft hair. Keeping his eyes locked into the other boy's, he tilted Takuya's chin up and pressed the brunette's lips to his own. Takuya's hands found their way to Kouji's waist and he closed his eyes, letting his mind focus on nothing except the taste of the other boy's lips. He had never been so happy in his entire life.  
The two boys broke apart a good fifteen seconds later, still looking into each other's eyes.  
"Kouji." said Takuya, "I love you." Kouji was momentarily speechless. He couldn't remember anyone ever saying those three words with as much emotion as Takuya said them with. In fact, this was all new to him; the kissing, the feelings, everything.  
And he loved it.  
Wrapping his arms around the other boy, Kouji brought their faces closer together again. He planted a kiss on Takuya's cheek and pulled back just far enough to see into the brunette's eyes again.  
"I love you too, Takuya."  
  
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Wow! It's actually kinda sorta not a cliff hanger! I'm amazed at myself. And Kouichi is an artist...yet again, I'm amazed at myself.  
  
Some of the format is a little fucked up. Sorry about that. I've been trying to change it but I don't know how.  
  
Please review. 


	5. An EVIL School Day

This chapter starts off with a little meaningless fluff, but gets more serious at the end.  
I'm really sorry about TWD not being worked on, but at the moment I've got so much school crap to do that I'm practically failing all my classes as is, so I probably won't be updating as much, but I'll try to make my chapters longer. As for TWD...well, I have to write the 13th chapter all over again (and it was pretty damn long) and as you can probably guess, I'm procrastinating A LOT. It's not going to die though, expect an update around the beginning of February at the latest.  
  
A few notes about this chapter:  
*Kouji and Takuya have lunch during the second to last period of the day. I guess that's a little bit un realistic, but if it happens at my school the odds are it happens in at least SOME other school.  
*'this is thinking' "this is talking" but I think I said that already...  
*And once again, I don't own Digimon  
  
*********  
  
The day after Kouichi's party was the first day that Kouji had actually looked forward to going to school in a long time. He leapt out of bed the instant his alarm went off, racing into the bathroom for his shower and nearly bashing his head on the doorframe when he did. He turned the water for his shower up to a scalding temperature by mistake and didn't even notice until he had been showering for a good thirty seconds.  
  
"I'm so happy.so very happy!!" Kouji sang.  
  
He was in a very good mood today.  
  
Kouji finished his shower, threw on his bathrobe, and ran out into his bedroom to get dressed. He burst out five minutes later and ran downstairs, where he found his father sitting at the table drinking his morning cup of coffee. His stepmother was preparing scrambled eggs at the stove.  
  
"Hey dad!" he said, grabbing a neglected plate of toast from the counter, "What's up?"  
  
His father gave him a confused look, "Good morning, Kouji. Are you feeling all right?"  
  
"Yup!" Kouji said, "I'm feeling great!"  
  
"You forgot your bandana this morning," his stepmother said, depositing a plate of eggs in front of each of the Minamoto men. Kouji rolled his eyes. What business was it of hers if he wore his hair down for once?  
  
"Good morning to you, too."  
  
"Kouji, don't be rude," his father said.  
  
"Well.I don't have to wear my bandana if I don't want to," Kouji said, his mouth half-full of eggs and toast, " 'S my choice."  
  
"Why the sudden change, Kouji?" Mrs. Minamoto asked.  
  
The dark haired boy shrugged, "I dunno. Just don't feel like wearing it, I guess."  
  
Kouji's father and stepmother exchanged glances that looked along the lines of 'it-must-be-a-phase'. It was the look that they had given each other when Kouji first started wearing his headgear in the first place. Kouji finished his eggs and scurried back to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Today he had to look good. Today was a Takuya day. Kouji was just rinsing his mouth out when the doorbell rang.  
  
"Uh'll guh ih!" he said, spitting into the sink. He rushed downstairs and threw open the front door of his house. Standing on the doorstep, in blue carpenter pants and a red t-shirt, was Takuya.  
  
"Kou-chan!" he exclaimed, throwing his arms around the dark haired boy's neck. Kouji blushed crimson and pried Takuya off of him.  
  
"Not here! My father." he said, jerking his thumb back at the house.  
  
"Sorry, Kouji. Can I come in?" Takuya asked, "We still have twenty minutes to go before we gotta leave for school!"  
  
"Fine," said Kouji, trying to appear like he wanted Takuya to go away; his father was standing in the living room watching them.  
  
"Hello, Takuya," Mr. Minamoto said when the brunette ran into the house, "How are you today?"  
  
"I'm fine!" replied Takuya, "But I left something in Kouji's room a couple weeks ago when I slept over. Is it okay if I go get it?"  
  
Kouji's father nodded, "It's okay with me if it's okay with Kouji." He looked at his son, who looked at Takuya.  
  
"Fine. Just don't touch my stuff," he said, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
Takuya stuck out his tongue, "I don't wanna touch your stupid stuff."  
  
"I don't trust you," said Kouji. He followed Takuya into his bedroom and closed the door, "Okay, what did you leave over here?"  
  
Takuya's eyes widened with disbelief and a chuckle escaped his lips. A second later, he was laughing so hard that Kouji began to suspect that he had been tricked in some way.  
  
"What the hell are you laughing about?"  
  
"You don't get it?" asked Takuya, "I just said that to trick your dad! Now we can have some time to ourselves before school starts!"  
  
Kouji stood dumfounded for a minute, "You thought that up by yourself?"  
  
"No way! Kouichi thought it up for me!" Takuya said, "It was after you left the party.and he goes, 'Hey, Takuya, what are you and Kouji gonna do tomorrow?' and I said, 'Not much, we got school,' and he's like, 'Well, if you want to, go over to his house in the morning and tell his parents that you forgot something in his room. You take it from there.' And then he winked."  
  
Kouji was beginning to wonder what his brother thought about all day, but he didn't have time to think about anything else before Takuya had tackled him onto the bed. The next thing he felt was the brunette's lips pressed to his own in a soft kiss.  
  
"Are you sure this is safe?" he asked when they broke apart. Takuya grinned.  
  
"Unless your father just randomly walks into your room without knocking, yeah. It's fine."  
  
The two boys looked at each other briefly before they came into another kiss. Kouji wrapped his arms tightly around Takuya's waist. He held on a little too tight, however, and the brunette squeaked. Kouji laughed by mistake and broke the kiss.  
  
"What." said Takuya. He glared at his boyfriend, who grinned apologetically.  
  
"Sorry, Takuya."  
  
The brunette 'hmphed' and rolled off of Kouji with his arms crossed.  
  
"You just make some real funny noises," the dark haired boy protested, "It's not my fault!"  
  
Takuya stuck his tongue out.  
  
"Kouji! Make sure Takuya got what he needed from your room, because it's time for you two to go to school!"  
  
The two boys jumped. Mr. Minamoto had horrible timing.  
  
Kouji rolled his eyes and sat up, "We're coming!" He got up and grabbed a brush off his dresser. Thanks to Takuya, his hair was now in an impossible state. The brunette had long since gotten off the bed and was now spinning around in the middle of the room.  
  
"Are you ready?" Kouji asked. Takuya swayed on the spot as he finally stopped spinning to answer the other boy's question.  
  
"No, but it's not like we have a choice."  
  
Kouji and Takuya looked at each other. It was going to be a long, boring school day.  
  
********  
  
The prediction turned out to be right. It was only halfway through the day, and already Kouji had had a test in every class except Math.  
  
In Math he'd had two.  
  
He opened his locker and glared at his history book with malice. He would most likely have a test in that subject too.  
  
"Perfect," he muttered. He hadn't even seen Takuya once since they had walked into the building, and lunch was still an hour and a half away. Kouji slammed his locker shut and turned around to head off to History.  
  
.and ran straight into Akero.  
  
"What's up, Kouji?" the blond boy asked, leaning on a locker and completely blocking Kouji's way.  
  
"Just about six tests and another one on the way," he replied. He mirrored what Akero had done and leaned against a locker.  
  
"Shit, man, that sucks," Akero said, "But look, before you go to class, I gotta talk to you."  
  
Kouji frowned and stood up straight, "Why?"  
  
"'Cause you gotta do something for me n' Meru."  
  
It was impossible for Kouji to describe the feeling he got in his stomach when Akero said that.  
  
"What do you want me to do?" he asked, "And make it fast, I gotta get to class."  
  
"Well," said Akero, shifting the weight of his books from one arm to the other, "You know how me n' Meru feel about...uh...fags, right?"  
  
"Yeah, of course." Kouji said, when all of a sudden Akero's words sank in, "Wait, huh?"  
  
"Fags, Minamoto. Gays, queers, queens, how many more words do you need?" the blond boy said, his voice on the verge of annoyance.  
  
Kouji shook his head, "None, I was just kinda...worrying about how I did on my tests."  
  
Akero shrugged, as if saying, 'So what, this is more important than tests.'  
  
"Well, you know how we feel about people like that, right?" he continued, either ignoring or not noticing the band of sweat that was beginning to form on Kouji's forehead.  
  
"Yeah, I know."  
  
"Me n' Meru don't like fags, Minamoto," Akero said, as if Kouji had said he didn't know how they felt, "But we're sort of worried about you, catch my drift?"  
  
"Not really," Kouji replied coolly, desperately trying to hide his churning emotions, "What do you have to worry about?"  
  
"Some of your friends, or rather, ONE of your friends is a little...suspicious."  
  
'Takuya,' thought Kouji, 'He means Takuya.'  
  
"You know which friend I'm talking about, don't you, Minamoto?"  
  
Kouji nodded, "Yeah."  
  
"I'm talking about Kanbara," Akero said. Kouji was starting to get angry. He was about to be late for class, his friend was talking to him like he was stupid, and the conversation was heading in entirely the wrong direction.  
  
"I know that," Kouji said, "Now what do you want me to do?"  
  
Akero reached up and ran a hand over his blond crew cut, "We need you to prove to us that you aren't like Kanbara."  
  
"How should I do that?" asked Kouji, doing the typical I'm-very-very-late- for-class thing of tapping his toe on the floor, "Do you want me to stop hanging out with him or something?"  
  
"Nah, that's too easy. You have to prove yourself."  
  
Kouji didn't like the way Akero said prove.  
  
"We want you to beat him up, Minamoto."  
  
As if on some sick, twisted cue, the bell rang.  
  
*******  
  
"What's with the face, Kouji?" Takuya asked, sliding over a little closer to his boyfriend. (A/N: clichéd word...erg.) The dark haired boy shook his head.  
  
"Nothing, Taku-chan."  
  
"You sure?" asked Takuya, "You look so sad."  
  
Kouji shook his head again, "I had tests in every single subject today, that's all."  
  
"Ah," said Takuya, "That would make me pretty damn sad too."  
  
'And having to beat up the best guy in the world isn't exactly helping my mood,' thought Kouji. He opened his lunch bag and pulled out his carefully wrapped sandwich. On it was pinned a note written in neat, narrow handwriting; his stepmother's.  
  
'Good luck,' it read.  
  
'Good luck on what?' Kouji wondered, 'Did she find out about what happened at Kouichi's party? Does she know about.'  
  
"KOUJI!"  
  
The dark haired boy jumped and dropped his sandwich on the table.  
  
"What, Takuya?"  
  
"Were you paying attention to what I was saying at all?"  
  
Kouji looked at his neglected sandwich, "I was...just...thinking."  
  
"I was asking whether you can come over after school today," Takuya said. He moved over closer to Kouji so that their hips were touching and wrapped an arm around his waist. Kouji, not bring used to any sudden displays of affection, flinched a little. Takuya started to pull his arm away from Kouji's waist, but the other boy caught hold of it before he could.  
  
"Don't...I liked it..." he said with all the awkwardness of a teenager on a first date. Takuya shrugged and put his arm back around Kouji's waist.  
  
"So, can you come over or not?" he asked. Kouji smiled and kissed Takuya on the cheek, temporarily forgetting about what Akero was going to make him do.  
  
"Yeah...I'll have to call my stepmother and ask, but I'm pretty sure she'll say yes."  
  
Takuya made a random squeaking noise, threw his arms around Kouji's neck, and kissed him squarely on the lips. The dark haired boy's eyes widened and he got a glimpse of several girls staring at him before he closed them. He leaned a little more into the kiss and wrapped his arms around Takuya's waist. He didn't care if anyone saw; he didn't care what anyone said. Being with Takuya was worth weird stares and giggling fangirls and angry homophobes...  
  
...angry homophobes.  
  
'You have to beat him up.'  
  
'Well,' decided Kouji, 'That isn't going to happen.'  
  
'Fags, Minamoto. Gays, queers, queens, how many more words do you need?'  
  
Kouji scrunched his eyes shut. He wanted to focus on Takuya's kiss, not Akero's homophobic rant. He parted his lips and slipped his tongue out and around Takuya's, trying to shut out all sounds, including the whisperings of people around them and Akero's voice in his head.  
  
Suddenly, it was over. Several people clapped and Takuya pulled back with a huge grin on his face.  
  
"What's so funny?" Kouji asked. Takuya laughed.  
  
"You might want to wait until later to do something like that, Kouji."  
  
The dark haired boy looked at Takuya's hips and saw that his hands were resting on the top of the other boy's pants, ready to pull them off the first chance he got. Kouji blushed and let go of Takuya's waist. He noticed his abandoned sandwich lying forgotten on the table, but made no move to unwrap it. The kiss had jogged his memory, and now he didn't really feel like eating anymore. He never even wanted to see Takuya hurt, let alone be the one to hurt him. Kouji slammed his fist down on the lunch bench. Why did Akero and Meru have to be such jackasses? Why did they find it amusing to go around beating up gay guys? And most importantly, why hadn't he listened to Takuya when he told him to stay away from Akero and Meru?  
  
Kouji's thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. He looked over at Takuya, but the brunette was scarfing down his food and didn't have his hands anywhere near Kouji. He looked up and saw his brother standing over him with a grin on his face.  
  
"That was entertaining," Kouichi said, sitting down next to Kouji and putting his lunch on the table. His comment only made his twin blush more.  
  
"I guess so," Kouji said, "It wasn't meant to be."  
  
"I know," said Kouichi, "But it was anyway."  
  
"'Ey Kou-eeee-si," said Takuya with his mouth still halfway full of food, "'Ow come Juh-peh int 'ere? Whe zee geh ih baa?"  
  
"What?" said Kouichi, laughing at Takuya's I-have-my-mouth-full accent. The brunette rolled his eyes.  
  
"Nev' mine, ah'll tell oo lay er."  
  
Kouichi grinned at Kouji, but the younger boy was picking at the wrapper of his sandwich and didn't even look up. It HAD been a long day, but it definitely hadn't been boring.  
  
To be continued... 


	6. Almost Over

I HAVE BEEN GONE FOR SOOO LONG! Ah, God, it feels good to be writing again. I had so much poetry and short fiction and playwriting to do for my Creative Writing course this year, since I'm majoring in it, plus I started an original anime project I'm calling MNIPMaus. I started failing all of my classes sometime around January, so I figured that I should lay off the FanFiction until I could get some free time. Phew!  
  
But just when I thought I was catching a break...  
  
It turns out the summer is going to be no better than the school year, since I have two jobs and people are constantly asking me to sleep over or attend some stupid event. And I still don't have a girlfriend. How sad.  
  
The saddest thing about this story is the song that it is based on. This song, originally one of my favorite songs off the album "Disclaimer" by Seether, has been successfully turned into one of those annoying songs you hear every half hour on commercial radio stations.  
  
Yes, that's right, I based this dumb story off "Broken" (as you can probably tell from the title, ha ha...) and now the song is lame and I have become disillusioned with it. I know a lot of you are going to hate me for saying this, but Amy Lee ruins everything. There seems to be quite a large Evanescence fan base here, so aside from that comment I will keep my stupid mouth shut.  
  
Nonetheless, I will finish this! In one more chapter, I do believe. Cool. Then I can FINALLY work on The Warmest Dream, which I have wanted to do for the LONGEST time!  
  
This chapter may be slightly corny, but it gets good around the end, trust me! I wanted to make this a lemon, but once I got to chapter 5, I realized I was going nowhere in that direction, so I gave up on that thought. I still want to write one, though, so expect one in the future... I think. ;.; I'm so bad at lemons! Oh well, on with the story! Yay!   
  
BRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNGG!  
  
The bell for the end of the last class rang, and half the students nearly knocked over their chairs in their mad scramble to get out of the room. Kouji merely scraped his own chair apathetically back across the dirty floor, hating the stupid sound it made in response.  
  
He wanted to look forward to going to Takuya's after school, but he couldn't. He cursed Akero under his breath as he stood up. This was all that stupid dickhead's fault. All he really wanted was to spend the night over at Takuya's and feel happy loved for once in his goddamn life, but no. That prick had to ruin everything for him.  
  
As Kouji made his way to exit the room, his Language teacher cleared her throat and spoke up.  
  
"Kouji," she said, "can you come here for a minute?"  
  
Kouji wondered briefly what would happen if he said no and walked out of the room. Instead of that, he nodded and dragged his feet over to the teacher's desk.  
  
"I got a little concerned today when I was grading your test and I saw that you had received the lowest score in the entire class," she said, "This isn't at all normal for you."  
  
"Yeah, I know..." Kouji replied half-heartedly. He could see what was on the way, and it wasn't very good.  
  
"Is there anything going on that I should know about," the teacher asked, her brow creased worriedly, "Anything I might be able to help out with?"  
  
Kouji shook his head, "No, I'm perfectly fine... that test just wasn't on one of my strong subjects..."  
  
The teacher looked perplexed, "Are you sure?" she asked, "You were doing fine up until today."  
  
"I just wasn't all that focused today."  
  
It wasn't until after he said this that Kouji realized that he had just confirmed the teacher's suspicions. He took a panicked look at her face and saw that she was looking at him with the same concerned look as she had been before he had spoken. After some time she sighed in defeat and sent him on his way.  
  
"Well, if you ever do have any problems, Kouji, you can always tell me, okay?"  
  
"Uh-huh," Kouji said, trying to walk quickly through the door without looking like he was avoiding the teacher. He could feel her eyes on him as he walked down the hall and turned the corner to the stairs.  
  
What was he supposed to do now? From that encounter, he could guess that he had probably failed his Language test, and he couldn't expect his father and stepmother to be too glad about that. The problem with Akero and Meru was starting to affect him more than he had thought it would. Why had he not listened to Takuya in the first place? He hadn't been thinking too clearly after everything that had happened that day. With Kouichi being beaten up and Takuya finally telling him how he really felt, he had already had enough on his mind. Now the situation was irreversible.  
  
Perfect.  
  
For the first time in years, Kouji felt overwhelmed to the point of wanting to cry.  
  
He loved Takuya. There was no doubt of that. He also didn't want to endanger himself or his family any more than he already had by hanging around Akero and Meru. He had to protect Takuya and Kouichi. They were the people who should matter most to him in this situation. Even if it meant endangering himself, he had to keep them safe.  
  
Stupid protective instincts.  
  
There was no reason for him to hurt Takuya. Akero and Meru were crappy friends anyway. Kouji knew that. He just didn't know what the consequences of crossing them would be.  
  
'Ah, fuck it,' he thought as he walked down the seemingly endless steel stairs, 'I'm probably gonna get beaten up either way. Might as well help out Takuya while I'm at it...'  
  
Kouji pushed open the door at the bottom of the stairs and was immediately greeted by a wall of water.  
  
It was raining, something he had not been able to tell from inside the building for some reason. He sighed and blew his dampening hair out of his face, wondering why he hadn't packed an umbrella, or at least a hoodie. Or his bandana, which he had oh-so-conveniently not worn today. He thought of his warm, dry bed as he stepped over the threshold and into the torrential downpour outside the school.  
  
"Oh... dammit!"  
  
Something about Kouji's last thought had just reminded him that he was supposed to go over to Takuya's house after school. (A/N: That's just a little perverted...) Now he didn't even know where his boyfriend was. He turned to go back into the school, just in time to see the door slam solidly shut before him. Kouji felt a huge feeling of despair sink into him, as if the raindrops soaking through his skin were the messengers of depression. He resolved to give up and walk home in the rain.  
  
Kouji began to walk, dragging his feet through the endless worm-choked puddles that seemed to be just wide enough to stop you from stepping over them. He was now in a mood that was completely the opposite of the one he had been in that morning, and it was all thanks to that jerk Akero. For every puddle he stepped in, Kouji imagined that he was shattering the blonde boy's face, and the worms were all the tiny little fragments of Akero's tiny little brain.  
  
Something red in the by the side of the road caught Kouji's eye as he went to cross it. For some reason that was unknown to him, he drifted almost unconsciously towards it.  
  
The object turned out to be a very wet red and orange shoe, much like the type that Takuya wore most days. Kouji's heart twitched slightly as he pulled the tongue of the shoe out. Like a kindergartener, Takuya still wrote his name in his shoes, just in case he was absent-minded enough to forget them somewhere.  
  
There, on the bottom of the tongue, was a clearly written name: Kanbara Takuya.  
  
Kouji almost ran into a car as he jumped off the curb in surprise. What was Takuya's shoe doing out in the middle of the road? Takuya didn't even walk home the same way as Kouji did. Shouldn't he have been still at the school anyway? And most importantly, why had he just left the shoe at the side of the road, rather than picking it up again? Why had he been in such a hurry?  
  
Somehow Kouji had to stop the nagging questions that were now probing his brain. His stomach began to shift uneasily, and he got the feeling that something wasn't right, along with an impulse to go back to the school. He largely ignored it, since he had been having that feeling on and off ever since Akero had talked to him in the hall. Before Kouji even attempted to realize what he was doing, he was half-jogging back to the school, Takuya's soggy sneaker still grasped in his hand.  
  
The school building rose up ominously in the heavy rain, and Kouji felt very insignificant running along its edge. He barely even knew why he was running in the first place, other than that it had something to do with Takuya and the sneaker he had found in the street.  
  
Something wasn't right.  
  
He wished he had just run out of class with the mob of students, rather than making himself easy prey for the Language teacher. Instead, he had probably confused poor Takuya and made him think that he had stood him up. Kouji felt a forceful rage rise up inside him, and he turned it against himself. He was to blame for whatever had happened to Takuya, and something had happened. He at least knew that much.  
  
"No..."  
  
Kouji's ears seemed to prick up at the desperate sound of a voice from somewhere nearby. It was hard to identify exactly whose voice it was, with the rain and all, but it from the sound of things, the voice was coming from an alcove next to the exit of the stairwell Kouji had come out of not five minutes before.  
  
"Don't! I don't know!"  
  
Other voices became audible as Kouji drew closer to the alcove. His stomach gave a hideously painful lurch when he realized that he recognized the first voice that he had heard coming from the alcove.  
  
"Takuya!" Kouji exclaimed. He burst into the alcove, the other boy's shoe still clutched tightly in his hand. Takuya was shoved into a corner of the alcove. Standing over him were three other boys, one tall and blonde, the other two black haired.  
  
"Kouji!" Takuya said, his voice almost on the edge of breaking.  
  
The tall blonde boy turned around. As Kouji had already guessed, two of the three boys who were standing over Takuya were Akero and Meru. (A/N: I hope that made enough sense... for some reason it was a little confusing to write. )  
  
"Dammit, that took you long," Akero said, "We thought you weren't going to show up."  
  
"How was I supposed to show up when I didn't know where you wanted to meet me at!" Kouji protested, "Hell, I didn't even know we were supposed to do this today!"  
  
"We aren't doing this today, Kouji. You're doing this today," Akero said. His voice sounded aloof and almost cruel. It set a small spasm through Kouji's body to hear it.  
  
"Well how the hell was I supposed to know that!" he said, "You never told me ANYTHING! You just said that you wanted me to beat him up!"  
  
"Kouji..." Takuya whispered, his eyes wide with shock, "Do you mean me?"  
  
"Yeah he means you, faggot. Now shut up while me and my friend are talking!" said Akero. Kouji was raging inside. Akero was getting it all wrong. Akero couldn't see what was right in front of his face. An image of Akero's face with a pickaxe sticking out of it flirted around his head.  
  
"But Kouji, you said..." Takuya said. A moment later, one of the dark haired boys had kicked him in the face, and he cried out in pain, "You said you loved me!"  
  
Kouji was close to tears. He couldn't stand seeing Takuya that helpless against two people who were probably stronger than he was, being fed lies by a stupid homophobic jerk who didn't, even after Takuya's outburst, realize what was going on between the two boys.  
  
"Kouji? Love you? That's the funniest fucking thing EVER!" Akero said, bursting into a fit of laughter, "Minamoto never loved anyone! He fucking hates faggots like you, too! That's why I'm letting him beat the crap out of you today! He's our friend, and he's gonna do what we say!"  
  
'This is stupid,' thought Kouji, 'Akero's being the stereotypical cocky jackass. Why should I do anything he says?'  
  
"Hey, Takuya," Kouji said in the most comforting tone he could manage. He almost gasped in shock at how harsh his voice was. Instead of sounding reassuring, it had come out with a razors edge.  
  
"Kouji... I thought... we..." stammered Takuya. A tear sparkled down his cheek. "You lied? You said you loved me..."  
  
"Shut up! This is between me and Minamoto, Kanbara! Shut your gay face!" Akero shouted. The black haired boys proceeded to kick Takuya in the face again.  
  
Kouji clamped his jaw shut. Anger coursed through him in every direction. The raindrops that landed on him felt faint and distant. Suddenly, he realized that he wasn't in control of his own body anymore.  
  
As if through someone else's eyes, he saw himself clench his fist and punch Akero hard enough to send him backwards into the wall.  
  
"YOU shut up! It's YOUR fucking face I should be smashing in, not Takuya's! YOU better stop lying to yourself! Can't you see what's right in front of you? I could NEVER do ANYTHING to hurt Takuya! I love him, and you're never going to be able to do anything about it!"  
  
The two black haired boys ran over to Akero, who sat recovering against the wall as Kouji seemed to re-enter his body. He shook his head violently to clear it and discovered that he had been screaming directly into Akero's face. His throat hurt rather badly.  
  
"Kouji?" said a small voice behind him. Kouji turned around to find a very confused looking Takuya.  
  
Poor guy. The whole situation was probably too much for his head to take all at once.  
  
"What, Takuya?" This time his voice came out how he had wanted it to before. He rolled his eyes. That figured.  
  
Unfortunatly, the mixed message that Kouji had just sent only confused Takuya even more.  
  
"Do you still love me or not?"  
  
Kouji blinked. How could he have let Takuya think, even for this short of a time, that he no longer loved him?  
  
"Of course I love you," Kouji said, walking over to Takuya and helping him up (well, more accurately, he stuck out his hand. He still wasn't used to being that caring. XP) "I don't even know why the hell you bothered to listen to that asshole." He motioned over towards Akero.  
  
"But it sounded like you were really going to hurt me," Takuya said, "I thought you had just tricked me into going out with you so that you could beat me up or something..."  
  
"You're too goddamn paranoid," said Kouji, rolling his eyes again and taking Takuya by the hand. They walked out of the alcove and along the side of the building.  
  
"But," Takuya protested, "It sounded like..."  
  
"Hey! Give me SOME credit. I'm not a total asshole!"  
  
Takuya covered his mouth with his free hand and laughed, "Not usually..."  
  
"Hey, jerk, never! I'm NEVER an asshole, okay?"  
  
For a minute it was like they were just best friends again. Except for the fact that they were holding hands, they might as well have been. It was a good feeling, thought Kouji. Everything was okay again. With a stupid feeling, Kouji realized that he was still holding Takuya's shoe. He looked down at the other boy's feet and saw that he did indeed have only one shoe on.  
  
"By the way, Takuya, I found this..." He held up the shoe. Takuya's eyes widened.  
  
"My stupid shoe!" he exclaimed as he grabbed the sneaker, "Where the hell was it?"  
  
"By the side of the road on my route home..."  
  
"Oh... hm. I could've sworn I lost it somewhere else..."  
  
"Hey Takuya?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Why were you walking my route? Why not your own?"  
  
"Oh!" Takuya said, "See, I waited for you after school in the entrance hall, but you never showed up, and after like ten minutes I thought maybe you forgot or you just didn't really want to come over after all, so I went to go to your house to see if you were there. That's where Akero and Meru and this other guy were coming down the street, and they hit me a couple times and then dragged me over to that place back there. My shoe pro'lly fell off when I was trying to get away..."  
  
Kouji frowned, "What made you think that I would just forget about you like that?"  
  
"Well... you know..." Takuya hesitated, "You weren't really into anything at lunch, so I figured maybe you just wanted to be left alone..."  
  
Kouji remembered the way Takuya had kissed him at lunch. He really hadn't been into it, but that wasn't Takuya's fault. It was all stupid Akero...  
  
"That wasn't because of you, Takuya," he said, "I was just thinking about something Akero had said to me earlier that day."  
  
He explained about his confrontation with the blonde boy in the hallway, and how it had thrown off everything he did during the day. Until now, it hadn't really occurred to him that he had been really out of it for the entire rest of the school day.  
  
"That stupid jerk," said Takuya, "What made him think that you were actually going to do what he said?"  
  
Kouji shrugged, "He probably thought I was like him. But I'm not."  
  
"No shit."  
  
They walked in silence for awhile. As they were crossing the same road that Kouji had found Takuya's shoe in earlier, he thought of what Takuya had said when Kouichi had arrived at the house, his face bruised and bloody. He wondered how he could have kept denying to himself that Akero and Meru were the ones who had beaten up his brother. Why was he such a jerk? This was all his fault.  
  
As they neared Kouji's house, Takuya spoke up.  
  
"What's bothering you, Kouji?"  
  
The dark haired boy snapped out of his thoughts, "What makes you think there's something bothering me?"  
  
Takuya shrugged, "Meh. I dunno. You're not any more quiet than usual, but it's just a different kind of quiet..."  
  
Stupid Takuya. Someone other than Kouichi shouldn't have been able to sense that he wasn't feeling alright. Kouji resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to be able to avoid Takuya's ability to tell what was wrong with him.  
  
"I should have listened to you when you said Akero and Meru were the ones I had to be worried about. Then this whole thing never would have happened."  
  
Takuya looked shocked and stopped dead.  
  
"Did you just admit that you were wrong?" he asked hopefully.  
  
Kouji shoved his hands into his pockets grumpily.  
  
"No."  
  
"I think you did," said Takuya, the beginnings of an enormous smile plastered on his face, "You finally admitted that you were wrong about something!"  
  
"No it didn't," said Kouji. He regretted telling Takuya anything. "Just can it and keep walking."  
  
"Fine... but I think you did," said Takuya, skipping along next to Kouji and swinging their hands.  
  
They arrived at Kouji's house about five minutes later. Kouji made to go inside.  
  
"I'm going to ask my stepmother about going over to your house, okay?"  
  
"Right! I'll wait on the porch."  
  
"Alright."  
  
Kouji turned to go inside, but was stopped by a hand on his back.  
  
"Hey Kouji, wait..."  
  
The dark haired boy sighed as he turned around.  
  
"What, Taku—"  
  
Before he could finish, Takuya had spun him around kissed him, his arms wrapped around Kouji's waist. At first he was too shocked to even think about moving, but soon after, he let himself go, letting his hands flow down Takuya's body until he reached his hips.  
  
"Takuya..." he whispered as they parted for air, "I love you."  
  
Takuya beamed excitedly, "Me too, I mean... you too... I mean..."  
  
"I know," said Kouji. He lowered his forehead to touch Takuya's and stared into the pair of brown eyes that were blinking up at him. Slowly, he closed his eyes and brought his lips to Takuya's once again.  
  
All at once, the door opened, and Kouji's stepmother stepped out. She cleared her throat, leaving the two boys to cling to each other in surprise.  
  
"Ah! Hi, I..." Kouji stammered. His stepmother shook her head, a small lilting smile on her face. (1)  
  
"Don't bother with explaining, I'd already known for ages," she said.  
  
Kouji blinked rapidly.  
  
"How...?"  
  
His stepmother smiled.  
  
"I'll never tell. And yes, you can go to Takuya's today... just don't do anything too inappropriate..."  
  
With that, she walked back inside and shut the door.  
  
Kouji let go of Takuya's hips, frowning.  
  
"Stupid crazy woman."  
  
"She can't be that bad!"  
  
Kouji glared at Takuya. Any ordinary person would have wilted on the spot, but the brunette just kept yammering...  
  
"I mean, she didn't scream and yell and kick things and ground you for a month because you're dating a boy, right? Kouji? Right?"  
  
"No," said Kouji, "But it's damn scary the way she seems to know everything like that..."  
  
He decided to just forget about it. They walked away from the house and down the street, and Takuya put his arm around Kouji's waist for comfort.  
  
Everything was—well, for now anyway—completely done and over with, and Kouji had someone that he loved and never wanted to let go of. The weight of Akero's request had since lifted off his shoulders, and everyone he needed to protect was safe.  
  
The feeling he had gotten when he punched Akero was all coming to him now, as if he had only done it a few seconds ago. He was better than Akero; the blonde boy couldn't do anything to hurt Takuya or Kouichi now. He recalled a line he had read in a manga a few months before.  
  
"When a person is protecting something that is dear to them, they can become as strong as they need to be." (2)  
  
Yeah, he thought, wrapping his arm around Takuya's shoulders, that was pretty much dead on.  
  
To be completely wrapped up in the next chapter! Yay, only one more chapter of my crappy writing!   
  
Sorry about the corny end to this chapter. I got writer's block! What did you think? Have my Creative Writing courses helped me to become a better author? (I had hoped so, but after writing this I'm beginning to think otherwise...) Despite my usual self hatred, I will admit to one thing: this chapter is better written than the other five. Only one more to go! Oh I'm so happy!  
  
Footnotes:  
  
(1) I realize that I didn't use the word "lilting" correctly, but hopefully that is O.K. with you guys.   
  
(2) That's from Naruto! Go Haku! Most of you probably know that already... eep! Fireworks! Loud! Scary! Sudden! O.o Help meeeee... At any rate... I'm not sure if I got the quote completely right, but I hope it's at least pretty close. Yay Haku.  
  
Goodbye! Have a happy life!  
  
I will do "Thank-You's" to all my reviewers in the next chapter! See you all soon! 


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